Arkansas Bound With A Trunk Full Of Diapers!

[marc_54140]

What, Noah did not get to lick the sauce from your fingers?!

[Team Honeybunnies]

@marc_54140 wrote:

What, Noah did not get to lick the sauce from your fingers?!

Noah got to try a tiny spoon of Dad’s sauce one night and did a little mincing thing with his mouth and bounced up and down a couple times. Little Mr. Man might not be ready for that yet…

[Team Honeybunnies]

The 26th was our last day of pages, needing four more to complete the Arkansas DeLorme. We started off with a dense fog advisory, but headed for one of the most scenic portions of the state thus far. We took our time and did quite a few caches along the Womble Auto Tour in the Oachita National Forest. This is pretty similar to our Nicolet Auto Tour, and the caches were in some very pretty areas, though the fog kept the vistas shrouded. We took one nicely long hike for GC1A083 Crystal Vista. The fog was hanging in the spiderwebs on the slopes and looked like low-lying clouds passing through the trees. Perfect. Another very nice cache roadside was GCHYVP Hernando’s Hide Away. This one was at a spring in a steep little valley with a rock wall and shelter built by the CCC.

Another cache of note was GCTMNQ Hung Man’s Cache. Way down a gravel country road there’s just a sign nailed to a tree and an obviously much more recent stainless marker noting where a man was lynched. Just the idea of this one took the warmth out of the spring air. For the most part these things are in our past, but man’s brutality toward his fellow man never ceases to amaze.

We quit fairly early, the long days losing their novelty,and headed back toward the Hot Springs area. Time for a bit of a pilgrimage. We went to McClard’s Barbeque for dinner, getting there right around the rush hour and enjoying the bustle of this American classic. Fans of good barbeque and/or the Food Network will probably know this place, as it gets a lot of attention on a lot of top 10 lists. Bill Clinton has been known to partake in his hometown’s best and celebrity photos line the walls. The storefront was also featured in the opening credits of Burt Reynolds’ comedy series Evening Shade.

It’s just a little place with formica counter, tables and booths, and a checkerboard tile floor, but wow. You can eat the ambiance here with a spoon. Noah flirted outrageously with the waitress and she sat down and played with him for a bit and chatted with us before bringing out a couple slabs of the good stuff. Pure heaven with a side of slaw and beans. No sweet tea though! Plenty of places in the south advertise that they have the best Coke in town though.

We took a leisurely drive back to the hotel and spent a quiet evening not moving, and getting those finds logged and contacting majii, the owner of the Challenge so he could get the coords to us.

[Team Honeybunnies]

Friday the 27th was a great big ‘ol fat rest day with nothing on the agenda but sun and fun. We spent the entire day in the Hot Springs area, and visited the National Park for most of the day. There’s a really nice EarthCache there, GC11WJ5 Tah-Ne-Co. Six stops, six pictures and ten questions for a total of four hours of effort and a few miles walked. It takes you to most all of the interesting spots in the park, including the Visitor’s Center in the Fordyce Bathhouse, a hot spring, a cold spring, the Mountain Tower, the Grand Promenade, and a nice long walk to an outcrop on the trails above town.

This culminated in another visit to McClards. Same waitress, Noah still flirting, same bones for me. Marie had the chopped pork. Here the style is to serve the cole slaw on top of the sandwich. Takes some adjustment, but just a different kind of tasty. Dessert, the first in days, was peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream. Two spoons of course, and Noah got his first taste of ice cream. Made a face at the cold then scarfed it down with gusto.

We headed back early, anticipating rain, checked email and discovered that majii had sent us the coords, so we dashed into Little Rock to a scenic suburban park and charged uphill for the final. W00t! I could rhapsodize for hours about how fun these are, but it’s all been said before. If anyone’s still interested in my opinion I’ll freely offer it in person. Took a much slower sunset walk back to the car, breathing the air and taking in all the green, contented.

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